The present invention relates to a system for providing transmissions relating to broadcast transmissions and methods of customizing and presenting the broadcast content in the form of audio, video, and text, to a viewer (i.e., a person). Until recently, radio and television were the two most common forms of presenting audio or audio and video to a viewer. However, in recent years, electronic transmissions over the Internet have become more and more widely used as a medium for presenting information to a viewer.
Television and traditional AM and FM band radio transmissions are unidirectional broadcasts of a one-to-many point transmission scheme. Most cable television stations and some digital television broadcasting companies include a unidirectional broadcast that can be viewed only by selected recipients. For example, viewers who subscribe to certain pay channels such as Showtime or Cinemax are able to view those channels, while viewers who do not subscribe to those channels cannot view those channels. In addition, viewers who desire to purchase a pay-per-view movie can telephone the broadcasting service (or through some other means indicate their desire) to purchase the movie and only those purchasers can view the movie. However, besides indicated the desire to purchase the movie or subscribe to a channel, viewers have few communications to the broadcaster and have very little control over the received information, the format and/or perspectives of viewing the information transmitted, the time of viewing, etc. In addition, traditional television and radio broadcasters transmit the same advertisements to all viewers irrespective as to the whether a viewer is likely to be a candidate interested in the advertised product.
The Internet provides a medium of communication that allows more bi-directional communication than previously available with traditional television and radio. For example, a viewer can select which web page to view from a selection of web pages and can view them in any order. When the broadcaster of the web page has implemented dynamic web pages, the viewer can also customize the web page to his or her preferences. For example, a web page can be retrieved that displays the viewer's stock portfolio. Since different viewers typically invest in different stocks, the web pages for different viewers vary accordingly. Thus, dynamic web pages have the capability of producing web pages that differ from viewer to viewer.
Chat rooms have also become increasingly popular as a forum for people of common interest to communicate by typing messages that are visible to other participants in the chat room in real-time. However, the information accessible to a potential participant of the chat room is usually limited to the participants' usernames (or screen names) and the title of the chat room. Similarly, email, list servers, and newsgroups have become other common methods of communication.
Direct marketing in the form of electronic transmissions (such as email or fax) is often used to invite participants to receive a broadcast of an auction, video presentation, a web site, or to get people to buy a product or service. Typically, the email addresses (or fax numbers) of a group of people who have a common interest (such as horse lovers, business opportunity seeks, investors, etc.) are rented or purchased from an email vender. The purchaser (or a bulk mail or fax service) will then email (or fax) an offer to all of the email addresses (or fax numbers) in hopes that at least a small percentage will respond favorably to the advertisement by purchasing the service or product or otherwise responding to the advertisement (e.g., by visiting the advertised web site). However, if the recipient of the transmission is not interested in the content of the transmission (e.g., the advertised product), the recipient will typically simply delete the email or discard the fax.
Print advertisements are also used to drive traffic to web sites. Often, however, the person reading the print ad is not also operating a computer to allow the individual to immediately access the web site if the individual desired to do so. Portable digital voice recorders have been developed that record a persons voice, which is stored for later retrieval. The most common use of voice recorders is to alleviate the need to write down information that the user wishes to remember. However, the user recording the voice message, or someone else, must still transcribe the voice message (e.g., web address or desire to purchase a product) and input that information manually into a web browser.
Many people enjoy gambling even though most people do no live near gambling establishments and people often travel great distances to participate in gambling. One alternative is online gaming, which is performed through software. Specifically, a computer program generates the order of cards in a virtual deck of cards that the user plays. The virtual cards are typically displayed in graphic form on the user's display. The computer generation of the virtual deck of cards and order of the cards (or other gaming device such as dice or roulette) is not, by many people, considered to be trustworthy and fair. In other words, many people do not trust virtual gaming in which a computer controls the device of chance (e.g., dice, cards, or roulette) and as a result, virtual gaming to date has only received limited acceptance in the general public.